Business Incubators Increase Nonprofit and For-profit Odds of Successback

By Geri Stengelon Jun 30, 2009 - 3:46am

Every organization can use a pied piper – a leader who inspires people to follow. New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) has two: Natalia Oberti Noguera, director, and Allison Lynch, incubator manager. They recruited me to screen applicants for the program, provide training, and be a mentor.

In addition, they recruited Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and its Small Business Development Center to provide core technical training in entrepreneurship and Angela Jia Kim, owner of the luxury and eco-friendly skincare company Om Aroma & Co. and founder of Savor Success for professional development training.

Six budding women social entrepreneurs were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to participate in the NYWSE Incubator. The entrepreneurs were assigned a female mentor, a female apprentice and were provided many opportunities for peer support. The teams worked for six months to realize the entrepreneurs’ social ventures with the support of workshops, resources, classes, coaching, and pitch opportunities.

Over the course of the six months, the entrepreneurs’ progress was nothing short of transformational. One of the incubator companies, PublicStuff, was selected for a $50,000+ investment over two years by the Fast Forward Fund (FFF). Other entrepreneurs accomplished their goal of completing their business plan, putting together a pilot program or (re)designing their website.

The final event was presentations by each to a panel of experts who provided additional feedback. The experts hailed from diverse social enterprise fields ranging from women’s and children’s rights, to economic development, to venture capital, to social enterprise support, and small business development.Another expert critiqued presentations from a public speaking perspective. Experts included:

These entrepreneurs made huge strides in accomplishing their goals and increasing their odds of success. One way they did this was to hold each other accountable to the goals they set, which is something many entrepreneurs have a hard time doing by themselves. What’s your secret for staying accountable to your goals?